Verification of multi-agent systems with public actions against strategy logic

Abstract Model checking multi-agent systems, in which agents are distributed and thus may have different observations of the world, against strategic behaviours is known to be a complex problem in a number of settings. There are traditionally two ways of ameliorating this complexity: imposing a hierarchy on the observations of the agents, or restricting agent actions so that they are observable by all agents. We study systems of the latter kind, since they are more suitable for modelling rational agents. In particular, we define multi-agent systems in which all actions are public and study the model checking problem of such systems against Strategy Logic with equality, a very rich strategic logic that can express relevant concepts such as Nash equilibria, Pareto optimality, and due to the novel addition of equality, also evolutionary stable strategies. The main result is that the corresponding model checking problem is decidable.

[1]  Wojciech Penczek,et al.  Verifying epistemic properties of multi-agent systems via bounded model checking , 2002, AAMAS '03.

[2]  A. Prasad Sistla,et al.  Deciding Full Branching Time Logic , 1985, Inf. Control..

[3]  Barteld Kooi,et al.  One Hundred Prisoners and a Light Bulb , 2015 .

[4]  Michael Wooldridge,et al.  EVE: A Tool for Temporal Equilibrium Analysis , 2018, ATVA.

[5]  Michael Fisher,et al.  Verifying autonomous systems , 2013, CACM.

[6]  Thomas A. Henzinger,et al.  Alternating-time temporal logic , 2002, JACM.

[7]  Christophe Chareton Strategic Knowledge of the Past - Expressivity and Complexity , 2017, EUMAS/AT.

[8]  Michael Wooldridge,et al.  Equilibria of concurrent games on event structures , 2014, CSL-LICS.

[9]  Wojciech Jamroga,et al.  Module Checking of Strategic Ability , 2015, AAMAS.

[10]  Mark Ryan,et al.  Ideal Agents Sharing (some!) Knowledge , 1998, ECAI.

[11]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  Verifying and Synthesising Multi-Agent Systems against One-Goal Strategy Logic Specifications , 2015, AAAI.

[12]  Nguyen Hoang Nga,et al.  Symbolic Model-checking for Resource-Bounded ATL , 2015, AAMAS.

[13]  Wojciech Jamroga,et al.  Agents that Know How to Play , 2004, Fundam. Informaticae.

[14]  Ariel Rubinstein,et al.  A Course in Game Theory , 1995 .

[15]  Nicolas Markey,et al.  Augmenting ATL with strategy contexts , 2015, Inf. Comput..

[16]  David Chemouil,et al.  A logic with revocable and refinable strategies , 2015, Inf. Comput..

[17]  Wojciech Jamroga,et al.  Knowledge and Ability , 2015 .

[18]  L. Friedman Optimal Bluffing Strategies in Poker , 1971 .

[19]  Nicolas Markey,et al.  Quantified CTL: Expressiveness and Complexity , 2014, Log. Methods Comput. Sci..

[20]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  Practical verification of multi-agent systems against Slk specifications , 2017, Inf. Comput..

[21]  Bernd Finkbeiner,et al.  Distributed Synthesis for Alternating-Time Logics , 2007, ATVA.

[22]  Aniello Murano,et al.  Reasoning about Strategies: on the Satisfiability Problem , 2016, Log. Methods Comput. Sci..

[23]  Pierre Wolper,et al.  The Complementation Problem for Büchi Automata with Appplications to Temporal Logic , 1987, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[24]  Damian Kurpiewski,et al.  Fixpoint Approximation of Strategic Abilities under Imperfect Information , 2017, AAMAS.

[25]  Michael Wooldridge,et al.  Expresiveness and Complexity Results for Strategic Reasoning , 2015, CONCUR.

[26]  Thomas Wilke,et al.  Synthesis of Distributed Systems from Knowledge-Based Specifications , 2005, CONCUR.

[27]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  Decidable Verification of Multi-agent Systems with Bounded Private Actions , 2018, AAMAS.

[28]  Edmund M. Clarke,et al.  Model Checking , 1999, Handbook of Automated Reasoning.

[29]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  MCMAS: A Model Checker for the Verification of Multi-Agent Systems , 2009, CAV.

[30]  O. Kupermann,et al.  Synthesizing distributed systems , 2001, Proceedings 16th Annual IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science.

[31]  Aniello Murano,et al.  Graded modalities in Strategy Logic , 2018, Inf. Comput..

[32]  Xiaowei Huang,et al.  An Epistemic Strategy Logic , 2014, ACM Trans. Comput. Log..

[33]  Ferucio Laurentiu Tiplea,et al.  Model-checking ATL under Imperfect Information and Perfect Recall Semantics is Undecidable , 2011, ArXiv.

[34]  Michael Wooldridge,et al.  Nash Equilibrium and Bisimulation Invariance , 2018, CONCUR.

[35]  Michael Ummels,et al.  Rational Behaviour and Strategy Construction in Infinite Multiplayer Games , 2006, FSTTCS.

[36]  Patricia Bouyer,et al.  Dependences in Strategy Logic , 2018, STACS.

[37]  Thomas A. Henzinger,et al.  MOCHA: Modularity in Model Checking , 1998, CAV.

[38]  Nancy A. Lynch,et al.  Distributed Algorithms , 1992, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[39]  Aniello Murano,et al.  Reasoning about Knowledge and Strategies under Hierarchical Information , 2018, KR.

[40]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  Automatic verification of multi-agent systems by model checking via ordered binary decision diagrams , 2007, J. Appl. Log..

[41]  Joseph Y. Halpern,et al.  Ra-tional secret sharing and multiparty computation , 2004, STOC 2004.

[42]  Aniello Murano,et al.  Reasoning About Strategies: On the Model-Checking Problem , 2011, ArXiv.

[43]  M. Wooldridge,et al.  Imperfect Information in Reactive Modules Games , 2016, KR.

[44]  Xiaowei Huang,et al.  A Temporal Logic of Strategic Knowledge , 2014, KR.

[45]  Blai Bonet,et al.  Deterministic POMDPs Revisited , 2009, UAI.

[46]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  MCMAS-SLK: A Model Checker for the Verification of Strategy Logic Specifications , 2014, CAV.

[47]  Fabio Mogavero Reasoning About Strategies , 2013, FSTTCS 2013.

[48]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  Verification of Multi-agent Systems with Imperfect Information and Public Actions , 2017, AAMAS.

[49]  Giuseppe Perelli,et al.  Synthesis with rational environments , 2016, Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence.

[50]  Aniello Murano,et al.  Strategy logic with imperfect information , 2017, 2017 32nd Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (LICS).

[51]  Nathan R. Sturtevant,et al.  A parameterized family of equilibrium profiles for three-player kuhn poker , 2013, AAMAS.

[52]  Patricia Bouyer,et al.  On the semantics of Strategy Logic , 2016, Inf. Process. Lett..

[53]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  Verifying Fault Tolerance and Self-Diagnosability of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle , 2011, IJCAI.

[54]  François Schwarzentruber,et al.  Complexity Results in Epistemic Planning , 2015, IJCAI.

[55]  Mark Ryan,et al.  Knowledge in multiagent systems: initial configurations and broadcast , 1999, TOCL.

[56]  J. M. Smith,et al.  The Logic of Animal Conflict , 1973, Nature.

[57]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  Verification of Broadcasting Multi-Agent Systems against an Epistemic Strategy Logic , 2017, IJCAI.

[58]  Zohar Manna,et al.  The Temporal Logic of Reactive and Concurrent Systems , 1991, Springer New York.

[59]  Alessio Lomuscio,et al.  Model checking knowledge, strategies, and games in multi-agent systems , 2006, AAMAS '06.

[60]  Hector Geffner,et al.  Multiagent Online Planning with Nested Beliefs and Dialogue , 2017, ICAPS.

[61]  W. Jamroga Some Remarks on Alternating Temporal Epistemic Logic , 2003 .

[62]  W. Hoek,et al.  Dynamic Epistemic Logic , 2007 .

[63]  Michael Wooldridge,et al.  Reasoning about equilibria in game-like concurrent systems , 2014, Ann. Pure Appl. Log..

[64]  Ittai Abraham,et al.  Distributed computing meets game theory: combining insights from two fields , 2011, SIGA.

[65]  Marc Pauly,et al.  A Modal Logic for Coalitional Power in Games , 2002, J. Log. Comput..

[66]  Michael L. Littman,et al.  Algorithms for Sequential Decision Making , 1996 .

[67]  J. Reif,et al.  Decision algorithms for multiplayer noncooperative games of incomplete information , 2002 .

[68]  Gabriel Santos,et al.  Equilibria-based Probabilistic Model Checking for Concurrent Stochastic Games , 2018, FM.

[69]  Dietmar Berwanger,et al.  Hierarchical Information Patterns and Distributed Strategy Synthesis , 2015, ATVA.

[70]  Aniello Murano,et al.  Decidability Results for ATL* with Imperfect Information and Perfect Recall , 2017, AAMAS.

[71]  Hector Geffner,et al.  Beliefs In Multiagent Planning: From One Agent to Many , 2015, ICAPS.

[72]  Wojciech Penczek,et al.  VerICS 2007 - a Model Checker for Knowledge and Real-Time , 2008, Fundam. Informaticae.

[73]  Thomas Bolander,et al.  Epistemic planning for single- and multi-agent systems , 2011, J. Appl. Non Class. Logics.

[74]  Giuseppe Perelli,et al.  Synthesis of Controllable Nash Equilibria in Quantitative Objective Game , 2018, IJCAI.

[75]  Ronald Fagin,et al.  Reasoning about knowledge , 1995 .

[76]  Michael Wooldridge,et al.  Cooperation, Knowledge, and Time: Alternating-time Temporal Epistemic Logic and its Applications , 2003, Stud Logica.